Shivers down your spine
What a great feeling. It's a sunny Saturday morning here in Vancouver, I slept wonderfully last night (I was going to write "like a baby", but do babies really sleep throughout the night? I hear they wake up all the time) and besides some work with my team at school tomorrow, I don't have much planned. A weekend to relax :-)
Just as I was about to leave work yesterday, around 5:30, I saw a very bright rainbow around BC Place when the sun poked through the dark skies to illuminate buildings downtown. The colors were amazingly sharp. A few of us just stared out the window until the colors disappeared. Beautiful.
Then, I stopped by the Green Living Show. I was going to go over the weekend, but when I learned that Stephen Lewis was the keynote speaker at 7, I knew I couldn't miss it. I remembered listening to his five-part Massey Lectures on CBC a few years back and he was an incredible speaker.
His talk last night did not disappoint. The room was full, probably well over 100 attendees who were attentively listening to Mr. Lewis discussing global warming and its impact on some of the poorest societies in the world. Stephen Lewis has traveled extensively in Africa, and continuously works to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and the impact of the disease on the very fabric of society. What was really interesting about his speech was about the limited choices faced by the very poor on our planet. He brought us back to one of the early conferences on climate change where a minister from Indonesia stood in front of a group of Western leaders and told them that if they thought they could prevent developing countries from using dirty coal and other non-renewable energies without offering an affordable alternative, they were dreaming. Such a powerful statement. Western, developed countries are in no position to impose environmental guidelines on the rest of the world, especially when our governments refuse to set any aggressive targets for greenhouse gas reductions on their own soil.
I'm so glad I had the incredible opportunity to listen to Mr. Lewis. At times, his enthusiasm and powerful rhetoric sent shivers down my spine. I would love to be one of his students at McMaster University in Ontario to have the pleasure of listening to him every week.
The rest of the show was predictable as far as the exhibitors were concerned: organic and bamboo clothing, organic food, green building solutions, and hybrid cars. Interestingly enough, last night there were more people checking out folding bikes than hybrid cars. Are we potentially reaching a tipping point where people realize that cars, regular, hybrid or electrical, are not sustainable? Rex Weyler, a local Vancouverite and the co-founder of Greenpeace International, also spoke last night and he said that half the environmental damage of a car is done by the time the vehicle is sold, before one kilometer is even added to the odometer. Resources, building and assembly, transport, all these processes to get the car to the dealership and in the hands of the driver also have a big impact on the environment.
Just as I was about to leave work yesterday, around 5:30, I saw a very bright rainbow around BC Place when the sun poked through the dark skies to illuminate buildings downtown. The colors were amazingly sharp. A few of us just stared out the window until the colors disappeared. Beautiful.
Then, I stopped by the Green Living Show. I was going to go over the weekend, but when I learned that Stephen Lewis was the keynote speaker at 7, I knew I couldn't miss it. I remembered listening to his five-part Massey Lectures on CBC a few years back and he was an incredible speaker.
His talk last night did not disappoint. The room was full, probably well over 100 attendees who were attentively listening to Mr. Lewis discussing global warming and its impact on some of the poorest societies in the world. Stephen Lewis has traveled extensively in Africa, and continuously works to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and the impact of the disease on the very fabric of society. What was really interesting about his speech was about the limited choices faced by the very poor on our planet. He brought us back to one of the early conferences on climate change where a minister from Indonesia stood in front of a group of Western leaders and told them that if they thought they could prevent developing countries from using dirty coal and other non-renewable energies without offering an affordable alternative, they were dreaming. Such a powerful statement. Western, developed countries are in no position to impose environmental guidelines on the rest of the world, especially when our governments refuse to set any aggressive targets for greenhouse gas reductions on their own soil.
I'm so glad I had the incredible opportunity to listen to Mr. Lewis. At times, his enthusiasm and powerful rhetoric sent shivers down my spine. I would love to be one of his students at McMaster University in Ontario to have the pleasure of listening to him every week.
The rest of the show was predictable as far as the exhibitors were concerned: organic and bamboo clothing, organic food, green building solutions, and hybrid cars. Interestingly enough, last night there were more people checking out folding bikes than hybrid cars. Are we potentially reaching a tipping point where people realize that cars, regular, hybrid or electrical, are not sustainable? Rex Weyler, a local Vancouverite and the co-founder of Greenpeace International, also spoke last night and he said that half the environmental damage of a car is done by the time the vehicle is sold, before one kilometer is even added to the odometer. Resources, building and assembly, transport, all these processes to get the car to the dealership and in the hands of the driver also have a big impact on the environment.
Labels: activism, environment
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